Did you know that poor bladder habits can lead to poor bladder control and incontinence?
Good bladder habits are important and often change over time, so here is how you can maintain bladder control and prevent incontinence.
Firstly, you should ensure you are going to the toilet 4-6x/day and getting up no more than once in the night to do a wee. You should avoid going to the toilet just in case, for example before you leave the house. This can train the bladder to not fill completely before you get an urge to go, and this can reduce your bladder capacity over time. You should go only when your bladder is full and you get a normal urge to go.
Take your time and relax when going to the toilet. This helps your bladder to empty fully. When rushing, the bladder may not empty fully, and over time can cause bladder infections.
Drink lots of water! This is the best fluid to drink, and you should aim to drink 1 ½ to 2 litres of water a day. Try to limit tea, coffee, alcohol, and soft drink. Aiming for only 1-2 tea or coffee and trying to substitute juice/soft drink with water will cause less irritation of the bladder.
Maintaining good bowel habits is also important, especially avoiding any constipation or straining. This puts a lot of extra pressure on the pelvic floor muscles and can cause them to weaken over time. Weak pelvic floor muscles can lead to loss of bladder and bowel control.
So to keep the bowel regular, eat 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit each day, choose grainy products over white starchy products like white bread, pasta, rice and potatoes.
Keeping physically active also helps to keep the bowel regular and the pelvic floor muscles strong, so find 30 each day!
Pelvic floor muscle exercises should be performed on a daily basis to maintain good bladder control, and can be taught correctly by a continence physiotherapist.
So remember, if you have any bladder or bowel issues, or your bladder habits have changed over time, you are not alone! Poor bladder and bowel control can be cured with the correct treatment, but if you ignore it, it is like to get even worse!
If you need any help with bladder or bowel, please come and see me for a detailed assessment and treatment plan at Miami Physiotherapy or Lakelands Physiotherapy.
Miami Physio : 9534 4111
Lakelands Physio: 9542 9999
